Crane Rebounds, Villa Stuns Fickett at RITC

RIO RANCHO, N.M. -- After 112 Rage in the Cage events in Arizona,
the promotion finally ventured out of the desert Saturday to New
Mexico, where a combined 22 amateur and professional bouts were
held at the Santa Ana Star Casino.

Crane jumped at his opponent immediately with a takedown, then
transitioned from an armbar attempt to the guillotine choke, which
prompted Valdez to tap out.

“It was great to get back in the win column,” said Crane. “I wanted
to throw more punches and that was the plan, but when he was in
position for the guillotine, I went for it and stuck it to
him.”

In the co-main event, Richard Villa upset Drew Fickett(Pictures) with a second-round TKO. Villa
followed a game plan that started earlier that day at the
weigh-ins.

Fickett came in over weight and had to run off two pounds, which
may have taken its toll on him. Villa and his camp figured they
would take full advantage of that by letting Fickett come out
strong and then tire.

It was all Fickett in round one as he was able to land two good
right kicks to Villa’s head followed by a takedown. Fickett hunted
for the submission, but to Villa’s credit he held on to finish the
round.

Round two saw Villa attack and drop Fickett to his back with a hard
right, where Villa continued his onslaught with rights and left
hands until he coaxed out the referee stoppage and the biggest
victory of his career.

”I knew he was drained from running this morning,” said Villa. “We
planned on letting him come out strong and then I’d kick it into
another gear in the second. People didn’t know who I was before
this fight, maybe now they’ll take notice.”

Danny
Martinez(Pictures) retained his Rage in the Cage
lightweight championship with a first-round submission over Felipe
Chavez. Chavez looked to be in control when he took down the
smaller Martinez and connected with punches and elbows, but
Martinez reversed and got Chavez in a choke for the stoppage at
2:07.

Local favorite Marciano Wilson was disqualified after he had kneed
Dickie Chavez to the head during a break by the referee to stand
the fighters. At the time of the DQ, Wilson looked in control of
the action with strikes and kicks to the head.

Rafael Freitas defeated Eric Buck with a rear-naked choke at 1:45
in the first round after both fighters had their moments in the
fight. Richard Hale destroyed Jeremiah Martinez with a knockout at
1:01 of their first-round mismatch.

Quinn Mulhern submitted Blue Edwards with a triangle choke 34
seconds into the second. Last-minute replacement Eric Saavedra
halted Jeff Horlacher with a choke out at 1:41 of the second round
in a comeback performance.

Remaining unbeaten with a clear-cut unanimous decision over Jerome
Martinez, Ryan Kelly raised his record to 6-0 by scores of 30-27 on
all three judges' cards.

In women’s action, Jen Babcock halted Raechel Megahan via choke at
55 seconds of the first round. Babcock controlled the fight early
when she took Megahan down and landed several strikes from the top
before transitioning to the finishing move.